Town Square

If you pratonize downtown restaurants beware of police

Original post made
by MJ, Another Pleasanton neighborhood,
on Oct 22, 2009

Last Friday night my husband and I were driving down main street at approximately 9:45pm. A police officer followed us into a parking lot of a restaurant. We went in, each had 1 drink (our only alcohol that day)and an appetizer. We left 45 minutes later. Same police officer was parked with his lights off just off a side street. We then realized he was waiting for us. When we got into our car he started his and followed us to within a block of our house. We are a middle aged responsible couple driving a very average car. He had no reason to do this. The next night we went to downtown Livermore which was much more vibrant and did not have one police officer stalk I mean follow us. I highly recommend making the short drive to Livermore! Oh and my neightborhood was victim to a series of car burglaries on a Friday night months ago.

So he invested about an hour of time and didn't even pull you over? Might have been coincidence. How did you know it was the same cop? Some people would be happy to know that police are watchful for DUIs or that P Town is so nice the cops have little to do. Livermore has many fewer officers on duty at any given time compared to Pleasanton. I used to know the numbers but they are out of date but it's about 2 to 1.

Posted by Chris
a resident of Amador Valley High School
on Oct 22, 2009 at 6:22 pm

I would just need to go by own experiences of frequenting downtown eateries for nearly 40 years and have never seen the behavior of police as your describe. I am confident if the local police acted in a way as you described regularly the Town Square past postings would have touched on this by now.

By the way I would invite you to compare Pleasanton's and Livermore's car burglary rates and see where you would rather leave your car.

Oh By the way, as the title of your post says, what are we to "beware" of with police? Don't drink and drive? Don't park your car downtown unless you want a cop to watch it for you? Be careful or the police will make sure you get home safely? If you aren't doing anything wrong they won't pull you over?

Qwerty, you can sure be a meany! Just because I said that you like to charge across crosswalks and dodge traffic you get ticked? As I recall, you were bragging about being an amateur jogger. Right" yup...

tuy toy, anybody that states that the Pleasanton Police are stalking her has got to be smoking something...I'm not saying what but you have got to be doing something or you are simply a bit flaky around the edge. I've never heard anybody say that the police hid out and then tracked them? Qwerty is right, you need to shut your trap! Big poppa once got stopped for driving under the influence but he passed the breath test. And, the police didn't follow him home. As flaky as he can be, he is not paranoid like you.

You are kidding aren't you? You really think that the police will wait for 45 minutes in a car while you are inside a business that sells FOOD because he knows that you are drinking. Give me a break!!
I think your imagination has gone wild.

Posted by Andrew Morgan
a resident of Pleasanton Heights
on Oct 23, 2009 at 9:44 am

If your not a kid riding a skateboard, or driving an older beat up looking car you should have nothing to worry about in this town. When the PPD does enforce "traffic & public safety" it's usually in the form of a DUI checkpoint on either Hopyard, Valley, Bernal or Santa Rita & they're almost always in the outbound traffic direction so they are looking for the Dublin, Livnomo & other outsiders to target, not the residents.

Communities that prowl & patrol their dining & entertainment establishments are doing nothing but killing the proverbial golden goose & all in the name of "saving the children" or some other hogwash. In reality the innocent, responsible adult that decides to go out to dinner, has two glasses of wine with dinner can be considered legally drunk & instantly find him/herself in a world of DUI trouble. Organizations like MADD have simply gone too far in their obsessive pursuit of impaired drivers. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for getting the habitual, .10+ BAC drunks off the road but c'mon folks, we're all responsible people so let us have just a little enjoyment will ya Mr. Funcops?

Or just do like we do, WALK downtown!! Think globally, drink locally I always say.

Posted by Kafka-esque
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Oct 23, 2009 at 10:08 am

This reminds me of a great joke.

A cop is sitting outside of a bar in downtown Pleasanton one night & notices a patron stumble out the front door, stagger aimlessly through the parking lot, keys in his hand apparently looking for his car. He tries to unlock at least 3 cars with no success, dropping his keys as he tries in vain to locate his car. The cop just sits in his car & watches this guy knowing for sure that he has a DUI arrest in his future but still knows that he only has to wait until he starts his car to get his man. The guy stumbles around for another 15-20 minutes, tries to make a phone call into his wallet & light a cigarette with his keys & the cop is starting to get antsy as he sees other patrons leaving the bar, getting into their cars & driving away. Finally around closing time, around 2:00 (OK 11:30 for downtown P-Town) as the last customer is leaving the bar the guy finally finds his car, unlocks the door gets in, starts his car up & drives out the lot. The cop immediately hits his lights & pulls the guy over. "Sir" the officer says, "had a little too much to drink tonight have we?" "Not at all sir", the man very soberly replies. The cop can't believe what he's hearing so he takes him out of his car runs him through the series of sobriety tests which he passes perfectly. Still not believing what he's seeing he gives the guy a breathalyzer test & the guy somehow blows a perfect 0.0, no alcohol whatsoever. Dumbfounded the cop asks the guy how he could have been nearly falling down drunk just a half an hour ago & now drop dead sober. "Actually officer", the man replies, "I'm the designated decoy tonight so all my friends could drink then drive home."

Hey-
The cops are out all over the place giving tickets- so don't think you're the only ones being targeted. Thursday afternoon I drove past 3 people getting ticketed in a short 10 minutes. We're ALL being targeted. Now, if only they would get after all these annoying cell phone users!

Posted by lyndalu
a resident of Amador Estates
on Oct 23, 2009 at 4:46 pm

If you're not doing anything wrong, why do you fear police officers? If I'm not drunk, I don't care if an officer follows me. I'm actually happy to hear that officers are doing something to prevent drunk driving.

Posted by Stacey
a resident of Amberwood/Wood Meadows
on Oct 23, 2009 at 8:37 pmStacey is a registered user.

Being followed isn't so bad as when a cop outright lies when they pull you over. Wasn't here, but down in Southern California in a community quite similar to Pleasanton. We (college students) came out of a mall after shopping there for about an hour and got into the car to go home. Right after we backed out of the parking space, a cop pulls us over. We were very confused as to why he pulled us over. He wanted to know where we were headed. We said "home" (which meant back to our dorms at college). He wanted to look at ID and got frustrated with us when the address on our licenses didn't match "home". We asked what was going on. He said he saw us pull into the parking space and then pull out again. WTF? We had just been shopping and did no such thing (like it is illegal to do such anyway?). We had to show him receipts to prove that we were just shopping. It was basic harassment.

When a police officer pulls you over and asks: "Do you know why I stopped you"???

Just be polite and answer: "No. You'll have to tell me. I don't think I was doing anything wrong"...

Don't be a sap and confess to something before the fact...:)

I have a friend that's a CHP officer. He said people "confess" to things he didn't even notice. He was simply intending to give them a "fixit ticket" for a burned out tail light, or the like, and they "confessed" to "having had a few drinks", "speeding", "reckless driving", to name a few. The one I find very interesting - "I was probably speeding because I stopped for a few drink with friends after work and my wife gets mad if I'm late for dinner and I'm two hours late"... Busted on two fronts...:)

He said the No.1 excuse for speeding was, "Because I have to go to the bathroom"...

Posted by Jerry
a resident of Kottinger Ranch
on Oct 24, 2009 at 9:27 am

Does anyone know where to find documented statistics of traffic accidents directly resulting from cell phone usage? Does the CHP post those stats? I'd also be very interested to know where to find the statistics attached to the bill before it was passed into law. Thanks.

Posted by Jim
a resident of Hart Middle School
on Oct 24, 2009 at 10:11 am

Came out of the Oasis last night after having one glass of wine. Was pulled over immediately, given 3 tests and after passing each one and kept for 1/2 hour was finally released after quoting "read about the tactic in the Pleasanton Weekly."

Posted by Bill
a resident of Foothill Knolls
on Oct 24, 2009 at 11:15 am

Jim, how far did you drive before being pulled over? Did the officer make any mention of why you were pulled over? Not using your signal indicators? Swerving on the road? Not stopping at a red light? Anything???

I drove about a half of block and was specifically targeted after leaving a parking lot near a few local bars. We had been profiled as a younger couple and specifically targeted by 3 cop vehicles. After I had been told to have a safe trip home I questioned the motives of the officer as I had read about this happening to another couple in the local newspaper the day prior.

Posted by PTown Girl
a resident of California Reflections
on Nov 9, 2009 at 7:28 pm

Personally, I am glad I feel safe when I walk downtown at night. Heck, the more cops the merrier as far as I am concerned. Little to no graffiti, very little crime downtown, families, couples and teens walking around supporting the downtown and the businesses. This is because people feel safe. Don't be so fast to assume Livermore downtown has no problems. Check their police blotter for gang activity and many problems surrounding the Blue Bar just for starters.
And to the person complaining about the traffic stops and citations: very simple don't break the law and if you do be accountable for your actions. Don't blame the police for "harassing" you! It is a known fact (I have my sources in law enforcement) that many criminals and drug users stay away from Pleasanton because of the department's strong proactive stance. These people don't want to risk spending too much time in town as they know Pleasanton's finest are out there patrolling. When you are on probation and/or have warrants the last place you want to be is a town with an active police force right?
Lastly, do you really think some cop waited an hour for you to leave a restaurant? Get over yourself...

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